Plunge|Standalone GZDoom game and thesis project

[Jakub Majewski]

Hello everyone!

I have been tasked with creating a standalone game on the GZDoom engine, with assets either made by me, or modified from Public Domain resources. The game was distributed to players along with a survey. This was a project for my thesis, and was reviewed favourably by my teachers and seemed to be enjoyed by the respondents.

 

The plot: Your mother is deadly ill, so your task is to venture into the caverns to find a rare flower, which is a crucial ingredient for the cure. The caverns hold many dangers, but you are brave enough to face any danger!

 

You can grab the game from itchio:

https://jakub-majewski.itch.io/plunge

 

To begin playing, extract the zip and click on "Plunge.exe". You can play in either Polish or English and have an option to play with Texture Displacement, which will give more depth to the environments, but can look a little unsettling to a lot of people.

 

There is only one difficulty setting, and you need to bind Drop "Weapon/Lamp" to play the game properly(it should be bound to E by default). Make sure to press F1 for further help and instructions.

 

The gameplay can be described as a first person adventure, with elements of action and puzzle solving sprinkled throughout. If you know where to go, the game shouldn't take long to beat. As this is the initial release, I may consider updating it in the future, especially if users will report issues.

 

Here's a collection of screenshots:

Spoiler

 

 

Thanks for participating in the survey, your answers helped me a lot!

 

That's all, hope to see you soon.

 

 

 

Here's the walkthrough:

Spoiler

1. After passing through the hound chewing on a corpse(make sure to read the note on the ground), head towards the cave with the castle, then leave for a corridor on the left. You will find yourself on a ledge with a large cannon. Use your zippo to light up the fuse.
2. After the water drains and the plant grows, jump on the leaves to reach the cliff. Go up the corridor to the cavern with the Cyclops. You can't hurt him with your knife nor the zippo, but don't be afraid; avoid him and go through the corridor at the other end. Jump down, slash the fish and swim to the dam. There is a skeleton with a key near the dam; grab it.
3. Go to the castle cavern, then jump down to the lowest floor. You can enter through a hole in the gate from the north. You can see a device where you can insert something, and also find a broken shotgun. Grab the latter.
4. (Optional) In the castle cave, you can go north-west to find a strange lake. Burn the hornets with the zippo and take a bath to restore your health. You can return here for a health restore anytime.
5. From the castle cave, you can go north-east to swim through a watery corridor to find a house. The doors require a key, that you have acquired from the skeleton near the dam. Grab the items, then go to the upper floor. The door won't work, so you will have to go to the balcony and jump on the roof. You can enter a room through a hole in the grating. Grab the gun repair kit.
6. Return to the cyclops and kill him with the shotgun. Grab the crank that he drops.
7. Return to the castle basement and insert the crank into the suspicious device. The gate on the south will be lowered.
8. Upon entering through the lowered gate, climb the circular staircase in north-west. After you get on top of the tower, jump on the roof, then go south-east to find a ledge you can drop onto. Enter the window and grab the Keycard. Then leave.
9. Go up the tower again, but this time, jump onto the roof and leave through a hole in the north. You will end up beyond the metal door, which you can now open via a switch.
10. After you kill the robot, you can enter the camp via a hole in the grating on the east. Go deeper to the east to find a power generator you can activate by pressing a switch nearby.
11. After you deal with the enemies, use the keycard to open the door on the north.
12. After you step in the flowery field, you will have acquired the flower that you are looking for. You've almost won, and all you need to do is go back to the starting area.

 

And here's the secrets guide:

Spoiler

1. In the circular cave at the beginning, there is a strange looking wall to the west. You can use the zippo to light a fuse that is attached to it. After the wall goes down go inside and grab some mushrooms.
2. When you enter the house, you can jump onto the roof from the balcony, then jump onto the chimney to reach the upper roof. From there you can grab a shotgun shell box on a ledge.
3. When you enter the castle from the southern gate, you can find a suspicious looking torch in the western room. Press Use on it, then go to the upper floor to find a new room with a secret note above it.
4. Once you reach the castle roof, you can drop onto a ledge to the west to find a secret medkit.

 

Edited June 18, 2022 by KUBA18i : updated the game, added itchio link

[Dusty_Rhodes]

This is a very interesting post. I'm going to give it a look and fill out the survey. 

[DannyMan]

Like what @Dusty_Rhodes said, it's interesting.

[kalensar]

I submitted a survey response. No I did not beat it. 

 

The endeavor was really a good work on mapping for sure, and really decent for being obviously hand built in many aspects. The Cannon puzzle got a good chuckle from me.

[ScrappyMcDoogerton]

I had an absolutely fantastic time playing through this. I even turned the lights off, something I never do even when playing horror games. It took me back to the days of my youth, when games like this would let my imagination run free, and every new discovery was joyous. I have a few specific notes behind the spoiler, but I just have to say thank you for this, great game. And yes, I did the survey :)

 

 

Spoiler

My one major problem with the game was the combat and the way the knife works. There is a very long delay between when you click to swipe with it, and when it actually connects, making it very hard to effectively kill the spiders and dogs. Saving before every spider fight and reloading if I took too much damage was a bit of an immersion breaker.

 

There is no light in the room where you get the toolkit, so when you grab it and pull out the shotgun, it goes completely dark, which is a shame because it would be a really cool moment if you could see yourself finally get to pull out the shotgun after the anticipation of carrying it around.

 

When you get to where you fight the first robot, there are a couple of dogs with it, and there is no light in the area, so I ended up kiting the dogs all the way back to the brick building so I could have some light to fight them in. One light in that area so I could fight the dogs right there would be nice.

 

This torch is crooked and does not light: https://i.imgur.com/NqU3GtE.png https://i.imgur.com/Br6IbKC.png

 

[Jakub Majewski]

Thanks for the feedback and participation. 4 answers already!

 

As for the responding to the above post:

Spoiler

1. Well, the knife animation has a lot of frames, and each frame has to take at least one tic. I understand that for some people it can be hard to get used to. The in-game explanation for the protagonists inability to attack as effectively is the fact he is just an adventurous boy, and not a trained soldier like Doomguy.
2. Valid complaint, but it would make no sense of the torches/candles inside the house were already lit before the player's arrival, and the house is not a good place for mushrooms nor crystals to grow. At least you can light a candle on the table where you find the kit, along with a note.
3. Well, that's what pressing the Drop Weapon key is for. Drop a lantern in a dark area, so you can see what you are fighting.
4. Indeed it is! Press Use on it to un-crook it. Then take a look around.

 

Also, I realised that I forgot to include the walkthrough, I will add it to the OP in the near future.

[kwc]

Absolutely, I will!

May I ask what bachelors degree this is for?
I'm starting my Bachelors of Game Design in a few months myself. And have, too, previously submitted Doom mods as project submissions :P
I'll play through and fill out that survey in good faith :)

[Jakub Majewski]

6 minutes ago, kwc said:

Absolutely, I will!

What bachelors is this for?
I'm starting my Bachelors of Game Design in a few months myself. And have, too, previously submitted Doom mods as project submissions :P
I'll play through and fill out that survey in good faith :)

Computer Graphics.

And cool, good luck in your future endevours.

[Gez]

17 hours ago, KUBA18i said:

I have been tasked with creating a standalone game on the GZDoom engine, with assets either made by me, or modified from Public Domain resources.

That's nifty! Just out of curiosity, was the use of GZDoom part of the exercise (i.e., imposed by the teachers) or was it your choice? Because I would expect people would rather be tasked with tinkering in Unity, but perhaps GZDoom would be preferred for its relative simplicity?

[Jakub Majewski]

Just now, Gez said:

That's nifty! Just out of curiosity, was the use of GZDoom part of the exercise (i.e., imposed by the teachers) or was it your choice? Because I would expect people would rather be tasked with tinkering in Unity, but perhaps GZDoom would be preferred for its relative simplicity?

Well, basically, I had to decide for a topic on what I should do for my big project. I asked the professor for suggestions, and in return she asked on what are my interests and what am I comfortable with working on. And that's how I ended up here.

[Roebloz]

Well, I can definitely tell you put a lot of effort into this, but I...Don't like early, slow first-person PS1 games? I don't want to bash your work since I'm not a fan of these kinds of WADs/games, but uhhhh...Yeah.

 

-The game looks pretty (Especially the glowing blue crystals, ooh) but it doesn't really feel like Doom

-You are really slow, and can't see anything (Again, thsi is a horor standard if it was meant to be like that, but I just don't enjoy not seeing anything)

-The player has baby hands when swinging the knife and...Moans when humping a wall and even more so when landing from a great height?

 

I haven't played through all of it because I really wasn't that interested but uhhh...It's weird. Was it a requirement to make a slow and dark game? (Can't blame you either way, but yeah...Really weird style)

 

It's definitely a good use of the GZDoom engine, but I'll be honest and I expected something more like Doom to be fair. That being said, I will be answering the survey AND make a short video on it.

 

(Also, fuck the hornets. Here is one thing to know about game design, and take it from Daikatana: Annoying flying enemies with annoying sound design that can easily kill you while you struggle to hit them is bad game design. The dogs also deal quite a bit of damage, which is really annoying when you only have the knife. One cool thing would be to maybe set a fire on the ground with the lighter for the lamp as an Alt Fire and enemies could get damaged if they run into it.)

 

TL;DR: Expected Doom, got slow and dark early PS1 game, character too slow and moans, fuck hornets, will make video.

[Jakub Majewski]

1 hour ago, Roebloz said:

Well, I can definitely tell you put a lot of effort into this, but I...Don't like early, slow first-person PS1 games? I don't want to bash your work since I'm not a fan of these kinds of WADs/games, but uhhhh...Yeah.

 

-The game looks pretty (Especially the glowing blue crystals, ooh) but it doesn't really feel like Doom

-You are really slow, and can't see anything (Again, thsi is a horor standard if it was meant to be like that, but I just don't enjoy not seeing anything)

-The player has baby hands when swinging the knife and...Moans when humping a wall and even more so when landing from a great height?

 

I haven't played through all of it because I really wasn't that interested but uhhh...It's weird. Was it a requirement to make a slow and dark game? (Can't blame you either way, but yeah...Really weird style)

 

It's definitely a good use of the GZDoom engine, but I'll be honest and I expected something more like Doom to be fair. That being said, I will be answering the survey AND make a short video on it.

 

(Also, fuck the hornets. Here is one thing to know about game design, and take it from Daikatana: Annoying flying enemies with annoying sound design that can easily kill you while you struggle to hit them is bad game design. The dogs also deal quite a bit of damage, which is really annoying when you only have the knife. One cool thing would be to maybe set a fire on the ground with the lighter for the lamp as an Alt Fire and enemies could get damaged if they run into it.)

 

TL;DR: Expected Doom, got slow and dark early PS1 game, character too slow and moans, fuck hornets, will make video.

Well, even it's not your thing, it's still cool you checked it out. Make sure to link the video once it's finished.

 

As for the complaints:

Spoiler

1. The player's speed seems to be about the same as in other Doom Engine games, but don't quote me on that if the actual value is different. But yeah, since the levels are kinda spacey, progression can feel slow.
2. Moaning is exactly what Doomguy does when doing those things. Same for Corvus. Same for Duke Nukem. And probably a lot of other FPS protagonists too. So yeah, I didn't expect this complaint.
3. I wasn't a big fan of the hornets either, but since I put the time and effort to make them, I thought I should include them in at least one room. The room with a healing lake seemed like the least bad choice.
4. If I made it so you can set a fire on the ground so enemies can walk into it, then people would probably complain that the enemy AI is dumb.

 

[Roebloz]

28 minutes ago, KUBA18i said:

Well, even it's not your thing, it's still cool you checked it out. Make sure to link the video once it's finished.

 

As for the complaints:

  Hide contents

1. The player's speed seems to be about the same as in other Doom Engine games, but don't quote me on that if the actual value is different. But yeah, since the levels are kinda spacey, progression can feel slow.
2. Moaning is exactly what Doomguy does when doing those things. Same for Corvus. Same for Duke Nukem. And probably a lot of other FPS protagonists too. So yeah, I didn't expect this complaint.
3. I wasn't a big fan of the hornets either, but since I put the time and effort to make them, I thought I should include them in at least one room. The room with a healing lake seemed like the least bad choice.
4. If I made it so you can set a fire on the ground so enemies can walk into it, then people would probably complain that the enemy AI is dumb.

 

Yeah, fair enough. The fire thing was more of a cool idea on paper than anything. The moaning just sounds much more like moaning than the classic Doomguy "Unf".

[Roebloz]

Here it is, have fun.

[Jakub Majewski]

Thanks for the participation, everyone! I have released the full game on itchio and applied some fixes. You can relight the lamp if it gets doused now!